Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: kevin cheveldayoff

The Winnipeg Free Press's Gary Lawless has been on top of the Evander Kane saga since its outset, and this morning, Lawless suggests that the Winnipeg Jets' season sits at a crossroads (if not on a long Manitoba train track) thanks to the actions of not only Dustin Byfuglien, but also the Jets' captain, Andrew Ladd, its coach, Paul Maurice, and to some extent, GM Kevin Cheveldayoff:

Let’s review: Kane shows up for a team meeting in sweats. Byfuglien determines this isn’t good enough and tosses his teammates gear into a shower or a cold tub. Kane’s belongings are soaked and his pride and very likely his heart are damaged. He’s been humiliated by one of his big brothers. By one of the men he’s lived and worked with going on six years. Maybe there was a time when this manner of sending a message was accepted and worked, but no longer. It just made a mess.

Ladd is the captain of this room and anything that happens behind those closed doors is his responsibility. He needs to have his finger on the pulse of things. If he stood by and let Byfuglien commit this act — it’s on him. If he missed and then couldn’t or wouldn’t solve the issue before it blew up as it has — again it’s on him.

Same goes for Maurice. This coach likes to say he lets the players run the room. Fine. But at some point in time Tuesday when this was playing out, Maurice had to determine his influence was needed. He’s lost a player. A skilled and productive forward on a team that just can’t afford to move on without a suitable replacement.

If Kane is indeed done with the Jets and Cheveldayoff can’t put together a deal to replace him, it’s hard to imagine this ending well for Winnipeg.

Lawless continues, and he does an excellent job of reminding us that whatever happened, a young man got treated like a child thanks to teammates who were equally "in the wrong" by going "old-school" on him, and the coach and GM are also culpable here...

And this is a situation that has less to do with a troubled player being an *#$%@& than it has to do with a troubled player's behavior yielding, well, organizationally-approved, coach-approved, captain-approved and teammate-approved assholery.

Cheveldayoff was asked about his star winger’s vague answer today at the conclusion of the Jets’ Development Camp and - not surprisingly - would not fan any of the trade-rumour flames.

"It’s very difficult right now in hockey," began Cheveldayoff. "You’ve got the draft and all the different things like free agency that come up and as you guys all know, there’s rumours that abound each and every day that send everyone in different directions. I can only imagine as a player what goes through your mind when you hear, ‘So and so’s being traded and different things like that.’ It’s got to be difficult. They’re all professional hockey players and they’re all subject to those kind of things. Even when you have your general manager like I’ve been saying, I’m open to look to see if there’s ways to make improvements on this team. Without singling out any individual everyone starts to wonder what’s going on.

"With specific reference to Evander and the situation where he was asked those questions, I think he’s been asked those questions year after year after year since he’s been here and certainly since the time he’s signed the contract.

"So, Evander is a Winnipeg Jet. What I took from his comments, is he’s excited about being healthy and training this summer and really looking forward to having a solid summer of training. He had some minor surgery last year that derailed some of the training side of things."

The Ottawa Sun's Bruce Garrioch ponders the fates of Dany Heatley, Andy MacDonald, Andrei Markov, Dmirtri Kulikov and others in his weekly rumor column, but he's been talking about executives for some time and I haven't paid those quips much heed, so it's time to talk about the gents in suits. In addition to wondering about the shelf lives of Dallas Eakins and Mike Yeo, Garrioch says that the Carolina Hurricanes' only general manager may be moving on up...

While Carolina GM Jim Rutherford is expected to move upstairs into a full-time role as president at the end of the season, the word is owner Peter Karmanos has to sign off on the decision to elevate Ron Francis. You’d have to think it is a rubber stamp and if that’s the case then coach Kirk Muller will likely be thanked at the end of the season.

After a Thursday meeting with True North chairman Mark Chipman and hockey senior vice-president Craig Heisinger at the NHL’s scouting combine, current Atlanta Thrashers GM Rick Dudley does not appear to be a slam-dunk to move with the club to Winnipeg. Nobody at True North will talk about it and there are strong rumblings here that Dudley will either be re-assigned or dismissed, that True North wants to go in another direction with its own people.